Friends of Animals
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
The organization has evolved from its beginnings as the most comprehensive low-cost spay neuter program in the country. Friends of Animals now places critical habitat, wildlife protection and veganism at the core of animal advocacy. We are constantly doing legislative outreach to get laws passed (some drafted by us) that will protect animals or to stop laws that harm animals in their tracks.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Spay and Neutering Program
Although there are an estimated 100 million cats and dogs kept by responsible and caring people in the United States, there is also a tragic number of these companion animals who suffer horrid cruelties associated with abandonment.
Animal shelters in the U.S. kill about 3-4 million such abandoned pets each year. And uncounted millions more suffer sickness, exposure, starvation and death on the streets of the nation’s cities and towns, and in the fields and forests of the countryside.
From its beginning in 1957, FoA has assumed a leadership role in advocating low-cost spaying and altering as the most effective means of preventing the births of unwanted dogs and cats, and their subsequent abandonment, suffering and mass killing. For more than five decades, we have operated the only nationwide breeding control program in the United States facilitating more than 2.7 million spay/neuter procedures, and we continue at a pace of about 24,000 annually.
Primarily Primates Sanctuary Support
Friends of Animals program supports Primarily Primates, a non-profit sanctuary in San Antonio, Texas that operates to house, protect, and rehabilitate various non-native animals. The private refuge currently houses several hundred nonhuman animals, and, as the name implies, focuses primarily on caring for apes and monkeys. Many are cast-offs from the pet trade and biomedical research institutions. Individuals who have been accepted into the refuge include chimpanzees once used in space training and testing protocols by the United States Air Force, and those used in movies.
African Chimpanzees
FoA works with primatologist Janis Carter in West Africa on educational efforts to secure a future for free-living chimpanzees, and to promote the protection of chimpanzees in their natural homelands:
- One such practical project involves the digging of wells as a solution to the competition between humans and chimpanzees over access to water in Southern Senegal.
- In The Gambia, West Africa, we're funding a unique chimpanzee refuge on three forested islands in the River Gambia National Park that are home to about 100 chimpanzees. Project staff monitors chimpanzees and provide protection, extra food, and other care when needed. The park also supports animals including manatees, hippos, baboons, monkeys and birds.
Wildlife Law Program
Our society created a legal system to resolve disputes and declare rights. While the system is designed to give humans an opportunity to be heard, it often neglects the lives of animals, especially wildlife. Friends of Animals seeks to utilize and develop laws in a way that offers animals representation too. Some cases that Friends of Animals is pursing are:
Fighting an unethical Barred owl removal plan: Friends of Animals intends to fight the FWS on their unnecessary and unethical record of decision approving a Barred owl removal plan that once again extends the government's growing commitment to shooting animals as a misguided attempt to save them from extinction.
A seemingly classic scenario in Alaska where the state sponsors an aerial gunning and trapping assault on wolves to appease moose hunters knowing it’s all pointless.
Wild Horse Chaos -- Free-roaming horses in Nevada rounded up by federal agents to make room for grazing cattle.
Where we work
External reviews
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Our goal is to free animals from cruelty and institutionalized exploitation around the world. Our experienced staff and consultants, include scientists, writers, attorneys, and community activists who translate the needs of other animals into a fully developed and integrated agenda for positive change.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Since 1957 our Spay/Neuter Program has facilitated more than 2.7 million cat and dog surgeries, thus helping to reduce the pet-overpopulation problem, and helping to reduce the mass-killing of animals. We will: 1) Continue a vigorous public education campaign which includes advertising and events. 2) Assist Animal Care and Control of New York City to promote adoptions and feral cat spay/neuter subsidies. 3) Subsidize spay/neuter certificates for individuals and rescue groups in need.
With our Wild Life Law program, we aim to utilize the array of local, state, federal and international environmental laws as a means to protect the rights of animals everywhere. We are currently working in court or before federal wildlife agencies to protect species like prairie dogs, wolves, bison, wild horses, etc. and have filed multiple petitions against government agencies that have overstepped their legal boundaries and aim to hold them accountable.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Each year, about 25,000 dogs and cats were sterilized through FoA's Spay/Neuter Program thanks to our network participating veterinarians. As program participants, veterinarians agree to spay/neuter dogs and cats for a set fee. Using FoA's certificate, pet-owners have their animals 'fixed' for a reduced price – a financial incentive which prompts prevention of breeding their animals. FoA's work discourages pet breeding, thereby stemming the tide of animals that wind up in shelters or face death through abandonment.
We are also capable of advocating for animals and creating positive change by educating communities and encouraging people to take action. We have been a leading figure in the movement to end the exploitation of fur-bearing animals and are capable of reaching large numbers of people through our anti-fur ad campaigns.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Having lasted for 59 years, Friends of Animals Spay/Neuter Program continues to assist 25,000 pet-owners annually with reduced cost spay/neuter. While this number is impressive, we are happy to see that we have completion with an influx of low-cost spay neuter clinics. After all, our goal is to stop the shelter killings of cats and dogs (no matter who facilitates the altering procedure).
We have been able to create a Wildlife Law Program in 2013 with the goal of filling a niche between animal and environmental activism and we've been making fantastic progress. We are combating animal trafficking, the exploitation of marine species, and exposing the mistreatment of wildlife by humans. We have filed petitions against governmental agencies that have illegally interfered in the lives of wildlife and have had success in protecting sturgeon, sharks, groupers and other species.
Primarily Primates has also made significant progress since we became involved with the sanctuary.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Friends of Animals
Board of directorsas of 02/23/2024
Pamela McKenna
Board Chair
Term: 2017 - 2019
Priscilla Feral
Friends of Animals
Sally Malanga
Community Volunteer
Elizabeth Forel
Teresa D'Amico
Barbara Sitomer
Phyllis Hawkins